SPRINGFIELD -- Plans for the Whistle Stop Cafe restaurant at Union Station have fallen apart, but a pair of restaurateurs who have a history of saving a downtown dining spot are interested in filling the void.

The Springfield Redevelopment Authority, owner of Union Station, and the backers of the Whistle Stop Cafe were unable to come to terms, SRA Executive Director Christopher J. Moskal said.

The Whistle Stop was planned as a 1,107-square-foot Italian-themed restaurant with craft beer and wine. The owner would have been Carlo Bonavita, whose son Sergio owns Westfield River Brewing in Southwick. Bonavita's cousin, John, owned The Tavern in Westfield.

The Whistle Stop name derived from a restaurant in the former Hotel Charles, which stood where the Union Station parking deck on Main Street was built.

Moskal said the SRA is in talks with an entity to run a restaurant, but he couldn't identify the party until the deal is further along its way toward completion.

But restaurateurs Andy Yee and Peter Picknelly on Thursday said they want to expand their Student Prince Cafe and The Fort Dining Room into Union Station with an eatery similar to the Wurst Haus stand The Student Prince has run at The Big E fair the past two seasons.

The Union Station restaurant would sell grab-and-go lunches and a light-fare breakfast with a German flare, Picknelly said. He and Yee said they are in talks now with the SRA.

"We want Union Station to be a success," Picknelly said. "You would have a Springfield icon in the Student Prince in an iconic building."

The Union Station location would be an expansion, not a replacement, of the existing Student Prince and The Fort Dining Room three blocks away on Fort Street.

Picknelly said he and Yee have a proposal for Union Station on the table, but there is no deal done.

Yee said the deal would include making part of Union Station's first floor into an event space for celebrations and business meetings. He foresees a space that would be outfitted with audio-visual equipment and offer full food and beverage service.

"I think there is a need in Springfield for mid-size event space," he said.

Leases for space at Union Station are made public, including the rent paid, after the Springfield Redevelopment Authority votes.

In separate interviews, Picknelly was more certain than Yee of the menu and concept at the Union Station location.

Yee, head of a family enterprise with eight restaurants including the Student Prince, where he is managing partner, said he hasn't done a quick-service, grab-and-go concept before.

"I've got to sit down and watch their traffic flow," Yee said. "We want to do something that is the highest and best use for that facility."

An investor group headed by Picknelly and Yee bought and revived the Student Prince in 2014 after it nearly closed despite 79 years in business as a downtown institution.

Picknelly, chairman and CEO of Peter Pan Bus Lines, moved bus operations into Union Station this summer and said Thursday that he is close to renting office space in the upstairs and moving Peter Pan's administrative operations there as well.

The administrative move would be temporary, he said, until 31 Elm St. is renovated and turned into the company's permanent headquarters. The SRA also owns that historic yet abandoned building which faces Court Square.

Picknelly's Opal Real Estate Group is currently working with Winn Development and MGM Springfield to negotiatote with the SRA to redevelop that building into housing, among other uses.

Picknelly has said he has plans to redevelop the current headquarters and former bus station at 1776 Main St., across from the Union Station complex.

Union Station opened in June following a $95-million renovation 40 years in the making. Moskal said he and the Redevelopment Authority board are very happy thus far.

Dietz & Company Architects rents 8,000 square feet, which is about a third of the available office space. Moskal said a number of potential occupants have looked at other available office space.

Amtrak will have contractors at the station soon to redo a first-floor ticket counter.